Which chemical compound is added to natural gas to safely detect leaks in pipelines and appliances?

great information, never knew that.

It smells like rotten eggs.

Before natural gas, at a time in the UK at least, gas was produced and supplied from coal, which had the distinctive smell naturally, without the need for the detecting odour to be added, mostly agreed was that of bad eggs.

learned that when I was a teenager and we were smelling something odd and my mom called the landlord to rule out a possible gas line leak. the gas company came and could vaguely smell it but there's tests showed no leak. they told us what is added to the gas lines.. I forget why we were smelling it tho, the gas guy explained it and we were perfectly safe.

Mercaptan is very stinky and if got on your clothes you would have to through them out.. No way to remove the stink.

I think I remember Natural gas has no odor so Methane is added to detect any leaks

It smells a bit like garlic..